


there is just one thing i need

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Dragon Hybrids, Holidays, Hybrids, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 17:10:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13058454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: Rabbit hybrids have never handled winter well and Sento is no exception.





	there is just one thing i need

**Author's Note:**

> You can consider this an outtake of the Dragon & Bunny series if you want to since it does include hybrids RyuSen. I'm not very inspired for working on fic more related to the show right now because the Blood Stark reveal was kind of terrible and everything since then has made me pretty unhappy. I'll try to get back on those. Either that or I'll give that longfic RyuSen idea I've been thinking about for a while now a whirl. It doesn't fit show canon but hey, AUs are fun!

Sento finds it improbably that a level built this low into the ground can be so cold, but the tips of his fingers are numb and he caps his dry erase marker in annoyance so he can rub the palms of his hands together to generate some kind of warmth. He hates that his kind are so prone to falling victim to the cold and that he doesn’t have a family who can keep him warm now.

Did he ever have a family who could keep him warm? He assumes so. He had to come from somewhere.

But he doesn’t remember them, just like he doesn’t remember himself or most of his past. Even the sensation of warmth and togetherness is somewhere beyond his reach where he can’t touch it.

His leg gives a thump and Sento huffs and forces it to stop, tugging the sleeves of his jacket down far enough to hide the tips of his fingers, hoping it might help keep him warm. He should be more careful during the winter, that much he knows, because Japan can grow cold enough to make his life difficult. Even if he has no memories of winters spent here, he must have spent them here, and he was able to survive then. He can’t remember how he dealt with the cold, or if he had someone to spend that time with. All he knows is that he did it.

“Oy, Sento.” The familiar voice drags him out of his thoughts. “What are you doing over there?”

Ryuga Banjo is sprawled across the bed in nothing more than a t-shirt and a pair of boxer briefs, easily kept warm by the membrane of his wings. There are times when the sheer size of his wings cause mishaps, especially in the lab when he forgets how small the space is and feels the need to stretch them, but they serve a positive purpose when he sleeps. Sento can only imagine how warm they keep him and how lucky he is to have them during the winter.

“I’m trying to get warm,” Sento snaps. He doesn’t mean his rude tone, but he’s cold, and he’s tired. “We aren’t all you. We don’t all have wings to keep us warm, you know.”

Ryuga cocks his head at him, sitting up and stretching his arms over his head, the hair of his not in braids a ruffled mess around his head. His cheeks are pink enough to tell Sento just how warm he is and he can’t deny how jealous he feels at the sight even as he tugs his jacket tighter around his body, trying desperately to keep in any form of body heat he can. His ears twitch on top of his head, the chill even doing its best to permeate through his fur to the tender skin beneath. He needs to invest in better winter clothing even though he knows the options for hybrids are poor and that he won’t find anything to keep his ears warm short of handmade.

“If you want someone to keep you warm, all you have to do is ask. You never shut up about science but you can’t ask for help?” Ryuga rolls his eyes when Sento huffs at him, but he offers his arms just the same and raises his eyebrows when Sento scowls at him. “What? Don’t look at me like that. You’re cold, and your kind don’t handle the cold well. So it would really be better if you swallow your pride and just come over here and let me warm you up. Be a lot better than freezing to death and not being able to solve any of these mysteries, right?”

“Maybe I don’t want you holding me. Maybe I’m afraid you’ll eat me.” Sento shrugs out of his jacket as he closes the space between them, keeping his voice light so that Ryuga will know he’s joking. The last thing he wants is to commit such a faux pas and have Ryuga think he hates him, after all. “Fine. But you don’t run your mouth telling everyone about this.”

“Why not? You afraid everyone’s gonna think you aren’t so cool if you need my help to stay warm?” Ryuga grins at him, and Sento would smack him for that if he could.

But instead, he toes off his shoes and hesitates at the edge of the bed, not sure if he wants to cross the final threshold and slip into Ryuga’s arms or not. The two of them have worked more or less just fine as partners since they settled into each other; Sento still finds his obnoxious behavior more than he can handle sometimes, but he would have no other person at his side when he steps into battle even if he could choose anyone he wants to.

“What is it?” Ryuga stretches out a hand to catch him and Sento leans back. “Hey—”

“It seems weird, asking you to hold me and keep me warm. Doesn’t it?” Sento sighs at himself, raking his fingers through his hair. “I’m overthinking this, that’s all. Just leave me be.”

Ryuga shakes his head. “Nothing good ever comes from that. C’mere, you look miserable.”

He is miserable. Without his shoes and jacket, he has even less protection against the cold and he can hardly stand it at this point. That decides him more than anything, not the way that Ryuga finally catches his wrists and draws him down onto the mattress, dragging him the last few inches into Ryuga’s lap. His skin is warm to the touch and Sento finds himself wrapping his arms around Ryuga without thinking about it, fingers pressing against the back of his neck.

“You really are cold, little bunny,” Ryuga says, and Sento makes a noise at him. If he was angled properly, he would thump him for that remark. “I know rabbit hybrids don’t handle the cold well, but I thought you might at least tell me if you needed help to get through it at night.”

Sento scoffs at him even as he nuzzles into Ryuga’s shoulder. “I don’t need help. I’m fine.”

“Then get up.” Ryuga laughs when Sento snorts at him. “That’s what I thought.”

Sento would stand up just to spite him, but he really is cold and Ryuga’s skin is blissfully warm to the touch, and when Sento hears soft leathery shifting, he realizes that Ryuga is wrapping his wings around both of them. The membranes cocoon the heat inside, better than any blanket Sento has ever used and he can’t help a relieved sigh as he sags into Ryuga’s arms. His fingers already have the feeling coming back into them.

“I wanted to get more work done tonight, but now I don’t even want to get up,” he laments, pouting when Ryuga laughs in his ear, the sound unfairly soft.

“You’re allowed to be tired too, y’know. All the fighting and research, the calculations, all the weapons you build so that you can fight. Your job. You’re allowed to be tired from all of that.” Ryuga’s hands smooth up and down his back, slow and easy. “Let me take care of you.”

Sento wants to retort that he can take care of himself, but that is obviously not true. If Soichi Isurugi had not taken him in when he had, he doesn’t know what would have happened to him.

The same goes for Ryuga, at least. Neither of them can say that they could have survived on their own, not with how Touto in particular treats hybrids, not with the Skywall, not with all of the circumstances the two of them are currently in. Maybe it isn’t so bad that the two of them can’t get by on their own. Sento wouldn’t want to be alone, to give up his pseudo family or his mission or the high that he gets when he and Ryuga are fighting each other side by side.

“Come on. It’s late.” Ryuga pulls him toward the pillows before he can respond, rolling them over so they’re on their sides under his wings. “And see how nice and warm it is here?”

Sento flushes and dips his head, hiding his face against Ryuga’s shoulder, though he can’t quite stop himself from dragging his chin across the skin exposed by the worn collar of Ryuga’s t-shirt. It’s almost childish, to scent mark him like this. To say  _ mine _ in a way that only other hybrids will be able to pick up because it isn’t like humans have strong enough noses.

“You know,” he says slowly, picking his words carefully. “I can’t even remember my last Christmas.”

“I spent my last Christmas with Kasumi,” Ryuga says, and Sento winces a little at her name but nods just the same. Of course Ryuga spent the holidays with her, they were close enough to be engaged when Sento had first met Ryuga. When Kasumi had died. “Her family didn’t care much for me, you know, because of… So it was just the two of us, but it was nice. We’d decorated the tree together, bought each other presents. We had hot cocoa and watched the snow fall.”

The scene sounds so nice and domestic and if Sento closes his eyes and tries hard enough, he can almost visualize it himself. The two of them sharing warm smiles, the soft lights of the tree, Ryuga keeping Kasumi warm like he does for Sento now. It pains him to think that this situation, that all of the evil conspiring against them, robbed Ryuga of such simple happiness.

“But it’ll be like your first Christmas,” Ryuga continues. “Since you can’t remember the others.”

Sento doesn’t know what to say to that because it’s true even though facing the truth of his lost memories is still difficult for him. “I don’t want anyone to make too big of a deal out of it. We only have so much here, after all. I don’t want Misora and Owner to worry after Christmas like that.”

“I won’t say anything to them if you don’t want me to, but I still want to try to make it special for you. So I’ll sneak out soon and try to find you a present. It’s the least I can do for everything you’ve done for me since I’ve seen here.” Ryuga’s fingers slip into his hair, brush it from his eyes.

“I won’t argue because I know you won’t listen to me.” Sento finally manages to lift his head, meeting Ryuga’s eyes, that warm and gentle brown. “Nothing too expensive or I’ll be upset.”

Ryuga grins at him and presses their foreheads together, and Sento wants to sink into him and forget about everything else for a while. Sink into his warmth and his smile and let the rest of the world go for a while. The unexplained mysteries, the pain that will no doubt await them when they begin to solve those mysteries, the endless fighting… He wants the world to be just this for now.

Of course, Ryuga falls asleep before he does. His eyelids flutter shut and his breathing evens out, and his chest rises and falls in smooth easy breaths that Sento tracks with his eyes before resting the palm of his hand over the strong, steady beat of Ryuga’s heart. He’s more careful when he reaches up to touch his wings, fingers tracing over the softer membrane, the ridges of blue that cover bone beneath. He can feel the warmth there, soaking into his skin, making the edges of his mind blurry and making him sleepy.

Ryuga can get him any present he wants to for Christmas, and Sento will accept whatever it is with a smile because Ryuga wanted it to be special for him. He’ll probably wrap it terribly, tear the paper or set the bow askew, but that won’t really matter.

Besides, no present is going to be better than this moment anyway.


End file.
